Actual enrollment figures will not become available until customers start paying for and then receiving insurance benefits come Jan. 1.

Lee said the agency had not originally planned to release the figures but decided to do so to counter persistent criticism of the agency's activity.

He suggested that early media coverage of the launch has tended to focus more on apparent glitches than on the people who will benefit from health care. In describing some of the coverage as "continued efforts at disinformation," Lee acknowledged that the agency has had some early challenges.

"Has it been perfect?" he asked of the site's rollout. "Absolutely not."

Still, Lee told reporters at the agency's headquarters in Sacramento that he was pleased thus far. "Looking back at this one week, the response has been nothing short of phenomenal," he said.

Despite getting off to the rocky start, Lee said the state exchange's website received more than 987,440 unique visitors and more than 59,000 calls into its customer service center through Saturday. Wait times have improved from as long as 40 minutes on Tuesday, the day it launched, to four minutes on Friday.

The target is for eight in 10 calls to wait 30 seconds or fewer, he said.